Deadline Murder

Maria Hamilton grew up in a hardscrabble small Pennsylvania steel-producing town where football was greater than sex or drugs. An only child, in her formative years her father; a high-school star football player, treated her like a son, passing footballs, shooting hoops and shagging baseballs. When Maria realized her dream of becoming a sportswriter for a major newspaper, her love for football is sorely challenged as she experiences the ugly underbelly of the sport. First she gives moral support to Jeff Samuels, the Detroit Lions’ quarterback, as he deals with stressful contract negotiations and endures the constant pain of an old sports injury. An even more devastating occurrence is the murder of Damon Duquesne, Jeff’s best friend and team wide receiver, the day of the division playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers. To solve this unthinkable crime Maria enlists the help of Liberty Johnson, Damon’s Detroit police lieutenant girlfriend, and Donato Benitez, vice president of chemical research at the Planet Oil Corporation of America (POCA), where both athletes were employed in the off-season.